The Audiokarma Official Steam Engines Magazine

I was "guest conductor" on a short leg of the Chessie Steam Special when it rolled back in the day. We'd drop all the passengers on the run, back it up, and get up a good head for a fly by - always a treat!

* Still got the C&O conductor's uniform in the closet!

Click to expand...

I was lucky enough to ride from Hyattsville, MD to Martinsburg, WVA behind C&O 614 (1981). Also rode the ill fated T&P 610 from Alexandria VA to Monroe VA and they burned up the pony truck bearing on the way back.(1977) We were stranded on the SRR mainline south west of Bealton VA. for over an hour before 3 diesels from Manassas, VA showed up. I took numerous trips behind SRR 630, 4501 & 722, N&W 611 & 1218, and 2839 the Royal Hudson.

Nice photos, Chris! I know how much you like steam engines. Here is the World's largest steam locomotive, Chris! It's at a railway mueseum in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I remember going to this mueseum when I was a kid.

Nice photos, Chris! I know how much you like steam engines. Here is the World's largest steam locomotive, Chris! It's at a railway mueseum in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I remember going to this mueseum when I was a kid.

They also had President Franklin D. Roosevelt's personal train compartment! I remember how plush it was with it's elegant furniture seating.

Click to expand...

I hate to disagree but the "Big Boys" weren't the biggest, most powerful or anything.
Most continuous Tractive force - N&W Y6b's after 1952. (170,000lbs)
Most boiler HP was probably the C&O H-8 Allegheny's or PRR experimentals.(somewhere in the 7500 range)
Longest were the Erie triplex or Virginian Triplex. The Big Boys got the name because someone snapped a photo of one while it was being built and on the front cylinder somebody wrote in chalk Big Boy.

I think the largest ever (non-articulated) steam loco was constructed to honor Josef Stalin. It was so heavy and impractically ungainly that it was unusable on the existing trackage and primarily served as a functionally useless prestige yard ornament.http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/russ/russrefr.htm

I think the largest ever (non-articulated) steam loco was constructed to honor Josef Stalin. It was so heavy and impractically ungainly that it was unusable on the existing trackage and primarily served as a functionally useless prestige yard ornament.http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/russ/russrefr.htm

Thanks for the photo, Chris! I would like to see that one fully restored.

Click to expand...

The problem is turning it and it has some rather large clearances issues. Its being converted from coal to oil during the rebuild. I think they may even scavenge parts from some of the other saved Big Boys. Should be done in about two more years.

High speed engine "Bayrische (Bavarian) S 3/6" in Offenburg, Germany. I took these pictures with the camera (Voigtländer) of my father in 1975, when I was 13. It is a machine with four cylinders, you can see two of them on the bottom of the kettle.

The "Badische IVh" is technically related to the "Bayrische S 3/6" and a High Speed machine as well. The 18 323 is exposed in Offenburg, the location where I took pictures of the 18 505 42 years ago. The diameter of the big wheels is 210 cm.

And here is a picture of the fastest steam engine of the world in 1906, the "Bayrische S 2/6". The diameter of the big wheels is 220 cm. The engine does still exist and is exposed in a museum in Nuremberg. This steam engine looks really elegant.